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ASKEW TMD-SUK (NEW ZEALAND)

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Askew SUK

Askew SUK

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Posted
Some fucking ace shit in this thread, good to see stuff from our little country getting noticed all over the world.

 

Askew, I noticed you've said before that you don't spend much money on paint cause you use left overs from jobs. By jobs do you mean legal stuff or do you actually work in an environment that gives you access to paint?...if you don't mind me asking...haha :p

 

yeah at the moment I've been using my share of the paint we won at W4G and left overs from a big legal job that Phat1 sorted out.. I've always done commissions and jobs as a means of getting money and paint.. These days I'm a bit more picky about what type of jobs I do. I have to be into it. So I end up buying a lot of paint too. I used to rack my paint but can't really be fucked anymore.

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Askew SUK

Askew SUK

Posted
Posted
would be fun to read that interview mister A;)

 

I've copied the text in here and also will put a page up on my new site! I've been working away on my new site the last few days. It's like a journal of shit I get up to. http://www.askew1.com

 

juicemag.gif

From this latest issue of Juice mag.

 

1. Biographical stuff: when was your first contact with the hiphop-scene and when did you start with graffiti? Why? Your homebase / where you are living? Who inspired you and still inspires you stylewise?

 

I was born in a small New Zealand City called Palmerston North which is situated in the lower North Island. My parents were just teenagers when they had me and they were heavily into the Punk Rock scene so I was around a lot of crazy characters, a lot of crazy people and I would honestly say that I didn’t have the typical up bringing for the earlier parts of my life. My parents had made a certain amount of personal sacrifices to bring me into the world, my mother particularly, who did her best to keep me sheltered from the drugs and violence that often crept into their scene. In 1984 we moved up to Auckland, which is the biggest and most populated city in New Zealand. At that time the first serious wave of Hip Hop was capturing the hearts and minds of the predominantly Maori and Pacific Island youth who embraced it on account of it’s furious energy and vibrancy. I guess like a lot of countries with a diverse Range of cultures living inner city, mostly poor and struggling, Hip Hop just spoke to them. The neighborhoods I grew up around in Auckland at that time were full of the early kings of the game, for my city anyway. The street we moved to in 1987, where my family still lives to this day was a Cul De Sac on the cusp of Morningside and Kingsland and was like a little pocket of Hip Hop Pioneers doing their thing. I was lucky enough to grow up around early B-Boys, MC’s, DJ’s and most influential to me, possibly some of the first local writers graced the walls of my hood. Some names that stood out to me were “Fly”, “USP” and “Smooth Crew”, who were featured in “Spraycan Art” and later on big influences on me were Opto and DLT and definitely the “DAF crew” who were like the realest cats about that kept the game going through a very quiet patch in our history, the early 90’s. I was really inspired by other people too like Riot and Fury and a lot of the more gang style taggers like ES crew (Ebony Society) plus I went to school with a lot of members of KOA who regardless of my often rocky dealings with them were an undeniable influence on my style in those days. One member, Bonus gave me my first tag in 1991 and drew me a tag alphabet to practise from. Also I have to give a lot of credit to Duck, Cripes, Webs and Ikon who were absolutely key in getting me seriously started out in ‘Writing’ not just tagging and also Tank who pretty much revolutionized the way graffiti is done here in NZ.

 

2. Why did you choose the name Askew? Just because of the letters or was the meaning of the word also a reason?

 

I guess it was a bit of both to be honest, but the letters were to perfect in balance for me to not take the name. The “A” is balanced against the “W”, the “S” can sit similar to the “E” and a “K” is the perfect letter to sit in the middle and give the name strength. Plus it doesn’t hurt that it has a kind of cool meaning to boot.

 

3. What makes your style askew?

 

I guess just the awkwardness of how I rock my letters. I’m striving for a balance between the traditional and the weird. I feel like that’s where I sit in this game too. I’m like the sort of person that loves tradition, culture and also hard work but I like people and styles that break conventions at the same time. I view my letters like characters interacting with each other, maybe having a dance in a night club or something.. That first dance where they are not totally letting loose yet in front of their dancing partners, they are still rigid and tough looking but a bit of their silliness is starting to peep through, haha! A lot changed for me after watching Doze TC5’s segment on the Style Wars DVD where he talks about the letters popping and locking. It was actually a revelation for me and made me rethink my approach quite a lot.

 

4. You’ve once said that you’ve started Graffiti for a lot of the wrong reasons. Which reasons do you mean? Give some examples.

 

I initially started tagging just to fit in with my friends. I didn’t start to be the best at painting style, fuck it, I didn’t even see style wars ‘til I was 18! I’d already been trying to do graffiti in some form or another for 5 years at that point! I also got really easily inspired by passing trends in graffiti and all that tricky stuff that didn’t really have much foundation to it. I would look at all the design inspired stuff or photo-realism or wacky bendy 3D pieces and think that was the new shit and that I had to do that to be ahead of the game. For a long time I was stupid enough to underrate Old School, and that lost me a lot of vital years of development. Can Two and Atom rescued me from that place. Just to have that dialogue with people that really rate good style and tradition and paint graffiti for that same old feeling that they got when they first saw it in the 80’s, that’s what I’m talking about. Nowadays I would honestly say I just fiend for style and all it’s possibilities. I also just want to paint what feels fun and free for me. I don’t want to spend 3 days doing a perfectly rendered piece, I want to spend 1-2 hours max on my piece and outline it with a New York Fat cap. I want semi-wild letters and all of those cool things people did in NYC like arrows and bubbles etc. It just feels better to me, I feel so much more complete and happy.

 

5. You’ve once said that you as a writer probably have had the most beef out of any writer in NZ. Why? Why did people hate you so much? Cause of your style, your ego, your success, your attitude or what?

 

I just don’t know what it is because anyone that truly knows me will tell you that I’m not an arrogant person, I’m friendly, happy and I give time to everyone that asks it of me. I have always attracted static in life, even before graffiti, I am like a beef magnet. It could be because I am very loud and extroverted and I naturally stand out in some way without even trying. I’m just that type of person. Actually my public persona and true persona’s are very different in some ways. Although I am a talkative person that appears to be surrounded by friends etc, I am a real loner. It’s very funny because I spend a lot of time by myself just thinking about creative things and I am most content when I am by myself. I think that’s why I have got ahead in whatever I try my hand at. I have always strived to do anything I’m into in excessive amounts and perhaps I am a very hard person to avoid in my city and Kiwis don’t like that. I am not a typical New Zealander and would probably exist fine living in a much bigger country where it’s harder to get famous. People here can get famous for doing a few pieces a year and me and some of my peers are some of the first people that feel like there is something wrong if we aren’t doing that many pieces a week.

 

6. You are a member of SUK and TMD – how come?

 

I’ve been in TMD since 2000 and that crew is my family. There is no end to what I would do for the people in this crew. These are the only people in the world that have had my back regardless of what I get into and how hard a person I am to understand at times. I can honestly say I love every member of my crew with all of my heart and to think of anything happening to any of them just tears me apart. TMD is not just a bunch of famous names, we function as friends before anything graffiti related and we do a lot together. There’s a lot of Barbeques and trips to the beach, we spend birthdays, Christmas and New Years together, you see what I mean? We do geeky shit like 4 car convoys to the Ice Cream shop and there’s Phat1 or Acre’s kids all tearing around and making us laugh. We are a big bunch of rowdy happy people. That’s why Can Two, Sinae, Atom and Wow123 got put down because when they are with us they totally fit into the TMD style of being. I’ve never had such close friends in another country before but they are a big part of the TMD family as well. To be put in SUK was like a different type of thing for me because I actually didn’t know anyone in the crew at the time apart from Can Two, but I was honored to be asked and from my time in this crew I have progressed and grown so much. SUK gave Exist, Phat1 and I an international platform to show our work that we didn’t have before and now that we’ve been in Europe and met so many of the people in the crew I can see the personality type is so similar to the people in TMD. That’s why I am loyal to SUK to the end and us kiwis feel so passionate about the kind of rebirth this crew has had in the past few years. All the people in SUK are friends of Can Two’s firstly and he is the glue that pulls it together. SUK writers all know how to have a good time and get rowdy, laugh and dance and that’s what brings us together before style or fame.

 

7. You are very dedicated to get up the names of your crews. What does it mean to you to be part of a crew?

 

I guess I sort of explained that in the last question, but to me the names “TMD” and “SUK” are to be represented as proudly as your family surname. When I put those names up I represent all the great people in those crews.

 

8. Have you ever been asked to join the Montana Writer Team?

 

No, I’ve never really had any invitations for exclusive sponsorship from any paint brand. I don’t know how viable a move that would be for the paint companies considering my locality. Someone may consider me worthy of that but what favor would I be doing to them? The paint market here in New Zealand is so small. As much as I would love to have free paint to allow easier expression of my ideas I can’t see it happening.

 

9. You travel a lot. If you visit a new place how long does it take you to feel familiar with it?

 

I actually don’t travel as much as it seems! I’m mostly found in New Zealand but have had a couple of trips out to Europe, first in 2003 and just a few months ago for the 2006 Kosmopolite and the W4G finals. I do travel my own country as much as possible because it is a very special place but would love to spend much more time in Europe. The main set back for me is we are really isolated here and I have to spend a lot of money and have to travel about 24 hours by plane to get to Europe. I am a very adaptive person by nature and can feel happy anywhere as long as I’m painting.

 

10. What’s the most interesting thing a foreign place can offer?

 

A new experience, a broader outlook on life, new friends and a chance to eat different food haha!

 

11. How do you navigate through a foreign town? By recognising tags & throw ups when coming from/getting to a place like if they’d guide you like a city map?

 

Normally I have at least one contact per town, that is the great thing about being a writer, it could be one of the best ways to see the real world. I normally end up in the places tourists would never go.

 

12. The more a certain writer becomes a public person, the more his face is known by the authorities the higher is the risk he has to take when doing steel-actions. Do you still do trains and if so, just abroad or also in NZ/your hometown?

 

I am not hugely active on trains, but that’s just more because of the microscopic rail system here in Auckland, which consist of 8 trains! I am however down for whatever, I don’t have boundaries. If I’m with someone that wants to go do a panel, I’m down. If someone suggests doing some throw ups and tags, I’m up for it. I like to do trackside pieces and I am not retired from being active at all. The day I only do legal walls will be a sad day for me, but I’m not against legal walls either. I like doing them too because when I paint with my crew it’s a great time to hang together. I’m in this for the long term and I am the first to admit I am a cautious dude and don’t like to be seen when I’m doing illegal stuff. I’m not ballsy in that way anymore because I’ve been caught doing trains, tagging and doing trackside pieces and would prefer not to get caught again as I’ve used up all my warnings and have got covictions now. Also through my work building my company Disruptiv and everything which has come from that like our magazine and gallery I have been pushed into some sort of graffiti advocate role which can be a pain in the ass at times.

 

13. Are you more willing to take the risk when bombing trains abroad cause you know that the consequences there aren’t as painful as at home?

 

I don’t really know what the consequences are abroad but I don’t think you should become preoccupied with the consequences of graffiti or you probably won’t do any haha! All I know is other countries have way bigger rail systems and a lot more action is possible. I would love to move out there and focus some time on that side of things at some point in my career.

 

14. Please describe the main difference between New Zealand and Australian Graffiti.

 

There’s a lot of differences, they have a way bigger scene, a far more consistent history and of course a healthier train painting scene based on the sheer size of their system. Also stylistically Australia has a way more distinct flavour of its own compared to NZ but we have perhaps a more international style. I think we are more influenced by Europe and our Hip Hop music is way more international sounding too. But I can never hate on the Aussie scene because it’s very active and original and a lot of my favorite writers are from there.

 

15. Please describe the Disruptiv project in your own words: What is it? When and why did you start it? What has it become?

 

Disruptiv was started by Pest5, Deirdre Dawson and myself over 4 years ago mainly as a means to survive and get some income of our skills rather than working in a normal job for someone else. It’s gone through a lot of waves and also a lot of highs and lows like any small business in a struggling economy. At times it has been a monster of an empire totally dominating the local Hip Hop industry and it has also had to be stripped back to just the 3 of us more than once just to help ends meet and avoid crippling overheads. Disruptiv has spawned an art gallery, magazine, record label and keeps me busy in graphic design and illustration plus a lot of interesting projects as they come along. It has at times also swallowed me whole and had me working months around the clock for very little financial gain. That’s the sacrifice you make to be your own boss though.

 

16. In Europe it’s certainly an issue that Graffiti doesn’t necessarily has to be a part of the HipHop culture anymore. A 15-year-old won’t understand why when doing Graffiti he has to learn about the HipHop culture when he prefers to listen to punkrock instead. Please comment on that. And: Do you have the same development in NZ?

 

I think there are those that are inspired by Hip-hop and live the lifestyle, even participating in more than one element and those that don’t really care about it. There is no right or wrong in my opinion but if I am to comment on my own approach, I am totally submerged in the Hip-hop world and also MC and make beats. I like Hip-hop inspired graffiti the most.

 

17. What does it mean to you being the winner of Write 4 Gold 2006? (Damn, we both should have met in Chemnitz…)

 

I’m not sure what it means yet, that is to be seen I think. It was a cool thing to happen but mostly was cool because I got to go back to Germany with a lot of my closest friends in the world and have a great time!

 

18. Quote three rap lyrics which have changed your life and why.

 

I can’t say a single rap lyric has changed my life per say but I can say the public enemy as a whole really shaped my adolescent life and turned me onto this path I’m still following today.

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